Sunday Salon: The Little Prince

Musing for this week's Sunday Salon.

This week I started reading the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

I'm about to make a lot of people upset, but. . . 

I didn't really like it.  

I went into the experience with high expectations, due to the devotion this book engenders.  I kept waiting to be charmed and awed, but I never was.  I made it about a quarter of the way through, and dreaded having to go back to it, so I gave up.  

I don't know what exactly about it I didn't like, only that I didn't like it.  

One smallish thing that colored my view of the book was this:  I think he got sheep and goats mixed up.  Sheep don't eat everything, like he said.  The eat grass and clovers and the like.  Goats eat EVERYTHING and would have had no trouble eating the baobab shoots.  I found this most distracting!

Then there was the shifting of point of view.  Sometimes the pilot is talking to the reader, and sometimes to the Little Prince.  This kept the narrative from running smoothly and drove me batty.

On the positive side, I loved the artwork.  It was enchanting and appealing--like I expected the prose to be.

Have you read it?  Did you love it?  What am I missing?  Why is this a classic of children's literature?

Anyone got answers for me?